A Brotherhood Christmas
by Wrath Demon
Summary: Pietro and Wanda confrontations, Brotherhood antics, and Freddy iceskating; What more could you want?
1. Snow war

_AN: Yes, I know that it's been done about a gazillion times already, but I wanted to try it out too, and I figured another one wouldn't hurt. You can never have too many Brotherhood fics._

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DISCLAIMER: I don't own X-Men Evolution.

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It was early in the morning on Christmas Eve, and the town of Bayville looked like a Winter Wonderland. Everything was covered in a shimmering layer of white, for it had snowed last night. The few lakes and ponds in the city were completely frozen over, perfect for skating on. The sun had come out a little while ago, casting its brilliant light everywhere, making the whole place almost sparkle. Everything was calm and peaceful, except...

"Aarrgghh!!! Pietro!!!" screamed 4 voices at almost exactly the same time. Bursting out of their respective rooms, Wanda, Lance, Todd, and Freddy turned wildly looking for the resident speedster. All four teenagers were wide-eyed, half asleep, and totally drenched. A breeze swept them and suddenly they all saw Pietro laughing at the end of the hallway, near the stairs.

"Hey guys! Sleep well?" he asked, grinning.

"Pietro, you idiot!!!" thundered Lance. "What the hell was that for!"

"Chill out, you guys," Pietro said, zipping around them. "It's Christmas Eve! I was practicing for tomorrow."

"You're going to pour water all over us tomorrow too?" asked Freddy, frowning at him.

"Nope! " Pietro said. "I never repeat a prank, at least not twice in a row, but I figured you guys needed some practice at getting up, so being the caring guy that I am, I decided to help!"

Wanda, who had just been looking on silently, suddenly growled. The table in the hall began to rise. "Pietro..." she said warningly, and then suddenly threw a hex bolt where her brother had been standing a split second earlier. She was _not_ a morning person.

"Whoa, head for cover, yo!" Todd said, leaping back into his own room as a table crashed into the wall next to his head.

"Aaahhh! Geez, Wanda! Calm down!" Pietro said, narrowly missing another bolt. "On second thought, never mind. I'll go make breakfast!" he said, high tailing it downstairs.

Wanda, muttering darkly, stepped back into her room and slammed the door. Freddy went downstairs after Pietro. Hey, if he was up, he might as well eat. Lance stumbled to the bathroom, thinking about telling Pietro exactly where he could stick his early-morning enthusiasm.

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Around twenty minutes later, all of the male members of the Brotherhood, (expect for Pietro), had gotten ready and were gathered downstairs, eating breakfast. A few minutes afterwards, Wanda stormed downstairs, looking furious.

"All right, where is he?" Wanda demanded, bursting into the kitchen.

"Who?" Freddy asked.

"The boogie-man," Wanda said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Pietro, you idiot! You know, my no-good brother who decided to wake me up in the middle of the night." Wanda said, glowering.

"Uh, Wanda," Freddy said, "It's almost 8 o'clock."

Wanda gave him the full force of her glare and he shrank back, suddenly very interested in his bagel.

Lance chuckled, "Not a morning person, I see."

"Damn straight," Wanda replied, grumbling.

Then,

"Aahhh!" A girlish scream rang through the kitchen and Todd started hopping up and down, grabbing at his back. "Cold, cold, cold!!! Pietro!"

Pietro zipped back to the kitchen door, after depositing a snowball down Todd's back. Lance started laughing, and then stopped a second later as Pietro gave him and Freddy similar treatment.

"Aagghhh!!! Maximoff!!!" Lance said, jumping in turn.

Pietro finally appeared, laughing his head off, giving Wanda the chance to lift him up and toss him out the window into a snow bank.

"Wanda!!!" Pietro whined from outside.

"Consider that a warning for waking me up so early," Wanda said smirking, as the kitchen was filled with laughter.

"And so falls the mighty Quicksilver," Lance said, chuckling again.

"Oh yeah," Pietro said, an evil glint in his eye, "I dare all of you to come out here and say that."

The residents of the kitchen exchanged glances, similar expressions on their faces. "With pleasure, yo," Todd said, grinning. Then he leapt out of the window right onto the spot where Pietro had been standing a second before.

Wanda, Lance and Freddy ran out after them, and all promptly got splattered with snow.

"Snowball fight!!!" yelled Pietro, whose white head was just visible behind a newly created snow fort.

With War Cries, the rest of the Brotherhood promptly got busy with a very vigorous snowball fight. Pietro made and threw snowballs in the blink of an eye, hiding behind his makeshift snow wall. Todd started kicking up the snow with his feet, creating a slingshot.

Wanda used her hands to make the snow lift up, swirling around her, forming itself into balls and throwing itself at anyone within 20 foot radius. Lance caused the tree Pietro was under to shake and tremor, and all the snow on its branches and leaves fell right onto Pietro and his snow fort, covering him. Freddy proceeded in making snow balls the size of boulders and throwing or rolling them at people, knocking Todd and Lance down in one shot. Then Pietro, in retaliation, used his speed to create a whirlwind, yelling "Snow twister, baby!" which even managed to knock Wanda down.

About 1/2 hour later, all 5 teenagers lay sprawled, pink-faced and exhausted on the snow, or what was left of it.

"Well, that was fun," Pietro said, staring up at the sky. "But you guys didn't have to pelt me the most!"

"You deserved it buddy boy. Serves you right for what you did this morning." Lance replied.

"Aww, come on! If I hadn't woken you up you guys would have still been in bed and we wouldn't have had this great snowball fight." Pietro said defensively.

Wanda started to get up. "Can we go inside now? All the snow's melted and I'm drenched."

"Yeah, yo." Todd quipped. "I'm soaking."

So saying the brotherhood all got up, each thoroughly wet and nursing minor injuries, and went into the house to change.

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A while later, the entire Brotherhood was back downstairs again, completely bored. Lance and Freddy sat on the couch watching some old reruns on TV, Todd was hanging off the ceiling fan, looking around for some bugs or something, and Wanda was back to her dark and morbid self, sitting in a recliner in the corner of the room. Only difference was she was wearing a pair of jeans and a black turtleneck instead of her usual outfit because of the weather. The guys were dressed more warmly too.

Then Pietro zipped in, grabbing the remote from Fred and plopping himself in the middle of the couch, switching channels in super speed.

"I'm bored." Todd announced. "Shouldn't we be doing something? I mean, it is Christmas Eve."

"Yeah," Lance said suddenly, supporting Todd. "We should do something."

"We got the tree already," said Freddy, looking over his shoulder at the sparsely decorated Fir Tree in the corner of the room. Everyone managed a grin at that. They had actually taken, or rather stolen the tree from the X-Geek's front yard a few days ago. It had been a great steal, even sweeter because it was stolen from the X-Men. That place had too many trees anyway.

"And everyone presumably did their Christmas Shopping right?" Pietro asked, looking up from the TV.

"Yeah..." they answered. There were quite a few oddly shaped presents under the tree. They were all covered with spells, courtesy of Wanda, so that it was impossible to go too near them right now, let alone open them. It was necessary, as Wanda remembered quite well how Pietro had mastered the art of unwrapping and re-wrapping Christmas gifts at the age of 3.

"Oh, I know!" Freddy said enthusiastically, "Let's go figure skating! I love figure skating!"

The rest of the brotherhood stared at him as if he'd grown an extra head. Freddy simply beamed at them. After regaining their voices, Todd managed to ask, "You ice-skate Freddy?"

"Well, actually," Pietro said, "that's not a bad idea."

Lance looked at him in disbelief. "You're not serious. _Ice-skating?!_ Have any of you guys ever even worn a pair of skates?"

"Sure," Freddy said cheerfully. "It's fun!"

"I say we go for it yo. Ain't nothing else to do around here." Toad said.

"Great!" Pietro said. He ran out in a breeze and was back within 10 seconds, decked in warmer clothing. "Ready!"

Lance looked around desperately for another sane person. His eyes fell on Wanda, who ironically, was the only certifiably _insane_ person there. "Wanda!" he said, relieved. "You're not going to go along with this, are you?"

Wanda looked at him coldly, "I don't skate," she said, and Lance sighed with relief.

Pietro glided around to his sister, "Sure you do Wand! It's fun! And if Freddy can do it, anyone can!"

"Hey!"

"I DON'T skate," Wanda said again, a little testily.

"Aww, Wanda's not scared, is she?" Pietro asked, teasingly.

The rest of the boys looked up and gaped, preparing to run before the Scarlet Witch lost it. As it was, Wanda's eyes flared up as she looked at her brother murderously.

"What did you say?"

"I asked if you were scared," Pietro said, who had obviously gone mad to say that stuff to his psychotic sister. "I mean, I know you're intimidated by my perfection sis, but I never thought you weren't up for a challenge..."

"Intimidated by-Why you little," Wanda said, bringing her hands up.

"Goodyou'renotIsee.Thenyoucancomeandproveitontherink,right? Greatseeyouguysinthecar!"

Pietro said all of this at super speed and then rushed out through the door.

Wanda glared after her brother and got up to follow him.

"Wait!" Lance said, "You're not seriously going, are you? Am I the only sane one around here!?"

Wanda faced him stonily. "Yes, I'm going," Wanda replied. "And so are you."

Lance gaped. "What! Why me?"

"You have to drive," Wanda said matter-of-factly. "I never learned how to, seeing as how I've been in an asylum for the last 6 years, Todd's too young, Fred's too big, and God forbid the day I trust my brother behind the wheel."

With that, she left, and Lance groaned. "Oh, man..."

"Come on, yo!" Todd said enthusiastically, hopping out the room. "This'll be cool."

Freddy started walking out, and stopped seeing Lance sink into the couch, face in his hands and muttering something like "Why me?" Fred simply walked back and picked him up like a rag doll, and walked out of the room again.

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AN: Okay, this fic is one of my earliest works that's been rotting in my computer for a couple of years, so it's pretty rocky in places. However, if you stick with it I promise that it gets a _lot_ better later on. Especially if you like Pietro and Wanda confrontations, this is one of the best there is, really. Just wait. And in the meantime, review please!


	2. The rink

DISCLAIMER: I don't own X-Men Evolution.

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At the ice skating arena, (which was actually a huge lake frozen over in the middle of Bayville)...

"Aagghh!!!" _THUD_ "Oww."

"So, that leaves the score at ICE-11 and Lance-0."

"Yeah, that's like his 7th wipeout yo, and we've only been here fifteen minutes!"

Toad and Pietro snickered at Lance's attempts at ice skating. The poor guy got up for like the eighth time, completely sore and pink in the face. He stumbled over to his laughing friends.

"When is this nightmare gonna be over?" he asked, groaning.

"Oh, I think we'll be here a while yet," Pietro said, grinning, "If only to see you make a complete fool out of yourself again, and again, and again, and ag-"

"Oh yeah? Then you try it hotshot! I don't see you out there skating! And the only reason I came is because I was threatened by a certain homicidal Scarlet B that we have to live with!" Lance shot back, his temper getting the better of him.

Pietro shot up and grabbed the front of Lance's jacket in a split second. "Watch it Alvers; that's my sister you're talking about," Pietro threatened, his eyes growing dark with anger.

Lance shook away from Pietro and sneered, "Yeah sure, the same sister that's-"

"Right here, yo," interrupted Todd loudly, glad to break up a potential fight. "Hi snookums!" he said brightly to Wanda, who had just stepped onto the ice next to them.

Wanda glared at him, "Call me that again and I'll make that horrible tongue of yours stick to the ice."

Toad gulped. "I, uh, think I'll go see how Freddy's doing," he said as he took off as fast as he could. Actually, Fred was doing quite well. To everyone's utter amazement, Fred had simply glided out onto the ice with an ease that seemed to defy gravity, considering his size. The ice didn't crack under him either, which was a mystery within itself. He could skate pretty well too; it was obvious he'd had practice before.

Wanda turned to her brother. "All right, I'm here. Let's get this over with."

Pietro looked at his twin, puzzled. "Get what over with?"

Wanda raised an eyebrow and looked at Pietro coldly. "I seem to remember you challenging me at the Manor, and I'm taking you up on it."

Lance whooped. "All right! You're gonna duke it out on the ice with Wanda? Man, you are so toast!"

Pietro glared at his friend, and then shifted his gaze back to his sister.

"Um, sure Wand. But just out of curiosity, have you ever, um, skated before?"

"No. Have you?" she asked.

Pietro looked at her as if this was a new thought to him. "No," he said, sounding surprised, "Guess I haven't."

Then he grinned cockily, "But that won't be a problem, I'm a fast learner, remember?"

Wanda rolled her eyes. Just then, Fred and Todd came skating back to them quickly.

"We got company yo!" Toad said.

They all looked to where he was pointing, and stared in disbelief.

"Can we go _nowhere_ without them showing up?"

Coming out of a minivan were Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Rogue, Evan, Kurt, and

"KITTY?! Kitty's here!" Lance cried in shock. "Oh shit, hide me, somebody! I can't have her see me on the ice! What if I make a fool out of myself?!"

"What if?" Pietro repeated mockingly. "Too late for that Lance; so far, your butt's been on the ice more than your feet."

By now, the 'X-Freaks' had spotted them and were heading their way, cold expressions on their faces, with the exception of Kitty and Evan. Kitty was grinning at Lance, and Evan looked like he wanted to be there just as much as Lance did. He was shivering under about 50 layers of clothing and staring at his feet, mumbling to himself. However, as they got closer, he spotted Pietro, and his face lit up for a split second at seeing his rival here, and then he smirked as he prepared to deal with him.

"Alvers," Scott said coldly upon seeing Lance.

"Summers," Lance said, sneering slightly.

There was a staring match for about 2 seconds, before Kitty broke the tension. "Hey Lance, like, how's it going?" Kitty asked Lance brightly, skating up to him.

Lance grinned at the petite girl. "Hey Kitty," he said, as almost everyone glared at them.

Then Jean sighed. "Look, we can all be civil here right? I mean, it is Christmas Eve after all, and it's a big lake."

"Sure Red," Todd smirked. "Why not?"

Unfortunately, no one else really heard her. By that time, the rest of the two teams were busy. Pietro and Evan had started up their usual beginning arguments, with Wanda watching, slightly curious.

Freddy, for once, decided not to see if there was any fighting and skated off on his own, happily rounding the other skaters and spinning graceful circles, causing people to gape at him. Scott was still staring disapprovingly at Lance and Kitty, and Rogue and Kurt decided to go do a few warm up laps around the lake.

Jean just shook her head and pulled Scott away from his glaring match, dragging him to another part of the lake.

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Meanwhile,

"Can not!"

"Cantoo!"

"Can not!"

"Cantoo!"

"Can not!"

"Cantoo!"

"Can not!"

"Cantoo!"

"Can not!"

"Wannabet?"

"You're on!"

Wanda looked on in slight amusement as her brother and the kid argued. She couldn't quite place him; wasn't he the one that shot spikes from his body? What was his name? Steven? No, Evan, yeah, that's right. Evan. He and her brother sure seemed to like to argue. They argued almost as well as she and Pietro used to, but not quite. No one could carry out an argument like her and her brother. When they were younger, the two had been as quick to argue as they were to share secrets. The fights were never anything too serious of course; there had been no bad blood at all between Pietro and her when they were young. They didn't agree at all on some things, but that never came between them; nothing had. Too bad things had to change...

Shaking her head from her reverie, Wanda came back to the present and took a shaky breath. It was no use to think about that now. Suddenly she noticed that the object of her musings was trying to get her attention.

"Wanda? Yoo hoo, Wanda... WANDA!!!" Pietro hollered into her face.

Wanda stumbled backwards a little, startled. "What!" she asked, regaining her composure.

"You okay? You kind of spaced out there," Pietro said, looking a little concerned.

_Concerned_? Wanda thought to herself. _No way, why would he worry about me? More like annoyed that I wasn't paying attention to his royal highness_... she thought bitterly, her expression taking on its usual evil form.

"I'm fine," she said harshly. "What do you want?"

Pietro suddenly looked a little nervous. "Well, uh," he stuttered, completely unlike his usual self. "I just made a bet with Daniels that we could beat him and one of the X-Freaks in a speed skating competition. No powers. You wanna?"

Wanda looked at her brother coldly again, even though she felt a pang of guilt when she saw his uncertainty towards her.

"No," she said.

"Oh, okay," Pietro replied, and for the entire world he appeared completely nonchalant, but she could tell he was obviously hurt, or at least disappointed.

Wanda bit her lip as she watched her brother turn and skate back towards that Daniels kid. Why the hell was she feeling so bad about how she was treating him? She hated Pietro, right? He was just like that monster she needed to kill.

Surprisingly, she had given up trying to kill her brother at the moment. At least, she told herself that revenge needed to come in a proper order, and the first person she needed to get rid of was Magneto; then she could deal with Pietro, no problem. And the only reason she was tolerating him now was so she didn't scare him away completely and have him run off to Timbuktu. She needed him here so he would be easy to find again after she was done with her Father. Right.

But then why was she feeling so damn bad about it? I mean, it wasn't like before, when they where younger and could actually feel what the other was feeling, whether it be pain, sadness, or glee. Those days were long gone.

Wanda looked up from her musings just in time to see Evan smirk. The two boys weren't far from her; well within hearing distance.

"Should have known she'd chicken out. Cowardliness must run in your family, huh Maximoff? Isn't just you then," Evan said, taunting.

It took every ounce of Wanda's limited self control to keep from blasting the whole damn town apart when hearing that comment. Pietro didn't bother restraining himself. Even before the words were completely out of Daniels' mouth, Pietro caught him with a sharp upper hook. Evan jerked back, holding his face and cursing. Some of his clothing tore as his spikes came out. Just as he looked up to deliver a counter attack, Wanda was there, up in his face, a black fire raging in her eyes, identical to Pietro's.

With a wave of her hand, the spikes forced themselves, a little painfully, back into Evan's body. She lifted Evan by the collar just like Pietro had done to Lance a little while back.

"Care to repeat that, you little shit?" Wanda hissed to Evan, as Pietro came up to her side.

Even looked up at the apparently homicidal chick in front of him and gulped. Damn, the girl was strong!

Now, even though this all happened in about 3 seconds, it was enough to bring a majority of the teams over. Scott skated up quickly with Jean in tow, as well as Lance and Kitty; with Kitty practically dragging Lance over considering he couldn't skate for shit.

Lance wobbled over to Wanda and Pietro and put a restraining hand on Wanda's shoulder, which she shrugged off angrily. Pietro seemed perfectly content to let his sister murder his rival on the spot. Scott came up cautiously with his hands held out for peace.

"Wanda, put Evan down," Scott commanded.

The glare Wanda sent him was enough to melt ice.

"Fuck off, shades," Pietro said harshly.

"Hey, come on guys, I thought we weren't going to fight this time," Jean said wearily.

Everyone looked tense. By now Rogue, Todd, and Kurt had come up too. Freddy was still skating somewhere, oblivious to all else around him.

"What's up, yo?" Todd asked as he reached them.

No one answered him; most of the X-Men were looking anxiously at Wanda and Evan. They couldn't risk an open fight here, and considering they had no idea how to beat the Scarlet Witch, it was very likely that they would lose.

Wanda, who still had Evan in her grasp, snarled at him. "You're going to pay for that remark, you Bastard." With that, she lifted up her left hand, still holding on to Evan with the right.

"Wait!" Kitty said, even though she didn't know what Evan did, if anything. "Look, Evan will just apologize, okay? Right, Evan, go on."

"Sorry," Evan said quickly, even though normally he would never have apologized to a Maximoff, at least not to Pietro. But faced with his psychotic sister, well, that was different. "I take it back, sorry," he repeated.

"Too late Daniels," Pietro sneered, and Wanda summoned her hex to finish him off.

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AN: Cliffhanger much?

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bant: You're my first reviewer for this fic! I'm so glad you liked it.

Red Witch: Oh, wow; I got a review from Red Witch! At the risk of sounding like a crazed fan, I gotta say that I love your work. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with all your stories, but most of the ones I've read cracked me up; and it's not that easy to make me laugh. Considering that I probably couldn't write humor to save my life, I have great admiration for those such as yourself who do it so well. Thanks for the review!


	3. Bailing

AN: Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

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DISCLAIMER: I don't own X-Men Evolution

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_"Sorry," Evan said quickly, even though normally he would never have apologized to a Maximoff, at least, not to Pietro. But faced with his psychotic sister, well, that was different. "I take it back, sorry," he repeated._

_ "Too late Daniels," Pietro sneered, and Wanda summoned her hex to finish him off._

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"Lance, do something!" Kitty cried out.

In the last second, Lance knocked Wanda's arm and her hex went flying in the wrong direction. It grazed Evan, but hit a tree instead, instantly felling it. It caught fire too, but that went out due to the large amount of snow it fell in.

Both Wanda and Pietro yelled in rage. A lot of heads turned in their direction, realizing there was going to be a fight of some sort.

The teams faced off, and right then, Jean shouted, "No!" and suddenly Wanda found herself lifted into the air and unable to move her hands.

"Let me go!" Wanda yelled at her, struggling to get control. She had been caught off guard, Damnit! She was released suddenly, for Pietro had raced around and attacked Jean, making her loose focus. Wanda sent about five hex bolts flying in immediate succession, a few of them reaching hitting their mark. Rogue, Jean, and Scott were hit and sent flying. The ice cracked. Todd leapt at Kurt who tried to teleport, and found himself half way across town in the Bayville Mall Parking Lot. Pietro was all over Evan, punching the other boy into a pulp.

Everyone on the ice was looking in their direction now, some starting to come over, but most were screaming and running.

"Shit," Lance said as he pulled Kitty behind him. He could see some people using their cell phones and talking frantically in the middle of the ice. They needed to get out of here, now!

"Wanda, Pietro, that's enough!"

Pietro never even looked up, but Wanda looked over and snarled "You! You tried to stop me!" With that, she threw Lance and Kitty ten feet into the air, and they slammed into a snow bank.

By this time even Freddy had stopped skating and come over. "Uh, guys, there are cops coming here, thought you should know," he said.

Todd cursed, "Shit! The fuzz yo, we gotta bail!"

Some very daring, and extremely stupid people chose that moment to skate up to them.

"What do you kids think you're doing?!" Some guy asked.

Wanda simply turned around and punched the guy, adding a little power into the punch to make him go flying half way across the ice.

"Hey!" yelled another woman, who advanced.

Todd tripped her, figuring it was better than having her fly across the ice. None of the other people were stupid enough to get involved, and most skated back across the ice as fast as they could. The cops had reached the arena then, and things were going to get bad pretty soon.

Rogue had gotten up now and started in trying to help Evan, but Wanda moved and threw the girl off.

Lance managed to get up too and made sure Kitty was okay. "Freddy! Grab Pietro. We have to go, now! Wanda you too! Hex me later damnit!"

Freddy separated a still-punching Pietro from a pretty beat up Evan and flung him over his shoulder. Pietro yelled in indignation as he was carried over to Lance's jeep. Todd and Wanda followed quickly, and Lance gunned the engine. By now, the X-Men managed to get back into their minivan and had started to drive away. Their car phased through an obstructing building, courtesy of Kitty.

Lance floored the jeep, driving and skidding like a maniac on the icy roads. They could hear sirens a little behind them. The police were following, just around the previous bend

"The cops gonna be on our tail in a second!" Todd yelled.

Pietro looked back. "Shit. Todd, cover the license plate!"

"What?"

"The license plate! Slime it, now!"

Todd reached over the back with Freddy holding on to his legs and spit on the license plate, just as two police cars, with their sirens blaring, came into sight. They couldn't get away like this. Pietro made to jump out the door, while the jeep was doing almost 65.

"Get out of here! I'll get rid of the cops!" he said. Just before he got out, however, Wanda turned and gave a shout of protest. Then, there was a squealing and a crunch behind them. They looked back and saw the two cars in the middle of the road, the first one with its tires popped and burnt, and the second had slammed into its side. The first one was almost off the road, due to the wetness of the street. They saw the cops get out of the car just as Lance turned into a side street, never slowing down.

"All right, yo!" Todd cheered.

"What the hell happened?!" Lance asked, unable to see because he was driving. Then the rest of them all looked at Wanda, who had just settled back into her seat. She looked at them calmly.

"I hexed the car and popped the tires," she said.

"Cool."

"Hey, is the license plate still slimed?" Lance asked.

"Yup."

"You're cleaning it up Todd."

"No way man! Why me?"

"'Cause you slimed it, duh."

"I had to, yo! Anyway, Quickie told me to; he should clean it!"

"No way! If I hadn't told you to, the Feds would have tracked us! Besides, I'm too good for menial labor. Make Lance do it; it's his jeep."

"I didn't slime it!"

"Yeah, but-"

"Shut up!" Wanda shouted. "You're giving me a head ache."

Everyone shut up for a bit. About 5 minutes later, they reached the Manor. The streets had been pretty empty, considering it was Christmas Eve. They all trudged back into the house, shedding various jackets and scarves on their way to the living room. As they collapsed on the couches, Todd said, "Well, that wasn't a total waste of time yo. I mean, we kicked X-Geek ass again, thanks to the Scarlet Witch, of course."

"It was fun," Fred said. "Hey, Pietro, you beat up Evan pretty bad, didn't you."

Pietro frowned. "He deserved it."

"Hey, what happened, by the way?" Lance asked. "The porcupine got you guys pretty riled up. Not that I'm complaining or anything; I mean, watching the X-Geeks get beat up is my idea of fun, but I didn't think even Daniel's was stupid enough to get Wanda mad at him. You would've probably killed the guy if I hadn't knocked your arm away."

At that, Wanda glared at him, getting mad again, and Lance said quickly, "Sorry about that, but Kitty kind of made me. Besides, did you really want the guy dead? I mean, I don't like him either, but still. What did he do?"

"Yeah, Pietro was beating the shit out of him yo!"

Wanda sneered at them, her lip curling, and stalked out of the room. Pietro frowned again and said simply, "Like I said, he deserved it." Then he ran out too.

"That was weird," Todd remarked, snapping up a fly.

Lance sighed and settled back on the couch, nursing his back. It was still sore from when Wanda had thrown him. Fred lumbered into the kitchen looking for something to eat.

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AN: Just wait. I promise you'll love the next couple of chapters. I hope you guys are having a wonderful Christmas and Holidays!!!

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S. Mark Gunther: Hey; I'm really glad you like the format of the story. Hopefully you'll continue reading it even though I have to shoot down your suggestions. First, I'm afraid I neglected to add any of the new recruits anywhere in the fic. Second, I feel I have to warn you that there will be absolutely **_no_** Todd/Wanda pairing. This story doesn't really have a romance angle, and honestly I loathe the pairing and find it completely improbable. I won't bash him or anything though; I mean, it is supposed to be a Christmas fic. But you can keep reading, because there's going to be a lot more Wanda, especially in the next few chapters, only it will revolve more around her and Pietro. Glad you liked the Evan beating though; I was concerned about flames from Evan-shippers or something.

Red Witch: You like the Evan bashing too? Hehe, maybe I should add more later on.

Bant: Yay!! Heehee, Merry Christmas!!!


	4. Conflicted Emotion

DISCLAIMER: I don't own X-Men Evolution.

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Wanda felt a breeze as her brother passed her on the stairs. She heard a door slam a second later and knew Pietro was in his room. She walked on, still scowling. What Daniels had said was still in her mind, making her angrier than she thought she would be. I mean sure, she should be angry at an insult directed at her, but this was more to her family. While that would make any normal person mad, it should have been different for Wanda. Whatever living family she had she intended to kill, so why should she care if they were insulted? She didn't count herself a part of them, right?

She told herself she got so angry because she reacted to it like Evan was insulting Marya and Django, her first parents; the ones who had given her their name and raised her and had died for it. She had loved them very much, and it was understandable that she would be angry when someone insulted them, right? Even though that was a reasonable assumption, Wanda knew that wasn't all of it.

As she walked down the hallway, confused with her conflicting emotions, she noticed something on the carpet and stopped suddenly. She stooped down to get a closer look at it. Blood. There was bright red, still wet blood on the carpet. She almost missed it; it was just a few drops. Wanda followed the trail and saw that it led straight to her brother's room. Shit.

Before she knew what she was doing, Wanda found herself knocking on her brother's door, calling for him. She then barged in, not waiting for a reply, though normally she would have completely respected peoples' privacy, even her brother's. Pietro looked up startled as the door opened.

He had his shirt off, and Wanda could see that his hands and shoulder were a bloody mess.

"Wanda?"

"What happened?" Wanda asked, walking over to her brother in concern.

"What? Oh, this. Nothing, I'm fine," Pietro said quickly, hiding his hands and trying to sound reassuring.

Wanda frowned at him. "You're not fine; you're bleeding." Saying so, she took her brother by his good arm and led him out into the bathroom. Pietro followed in slight shock.

"Wanda, it's nothing; I'm fine, really," he protested again. Wanda glared at him, shutting him up. Then she stuck his bloody hands under the sink and ran water over them. She swore. "How did this happen?" she demanded.

Pietro winced in pain. "Damn porcupine brought his spikes out when I was punching him. It's okay though, he's a lot worse off than I am."

Wanda inspected the damage to Pietro's hands and swore again. "You should have left him to me," she muttered. Then she looked at his shoulder and the worry on her face was evident. "We need to get that cleaned up," she said. "It looks pretty bad; do you have a First Aid kit?"

Pietro, however, didn't answer. He was looking at his sister in a peculiar manner. Wanda looked up and her comment froze on her lips as Pietro's cerulean blue eyes locked into her identical ones. They stayed like that for a while, neither knew how long. Suddenly, Wanda looked away, the strength of Pietro's gaze being too much for her at the moment. It filled her with too many emotions; emotions that she wasn't allowed to have.

"Thank you," Pietro said softly.

Wanda backed away, suddenly feeling trapped. Not knowing what to do, she did the safest thing and slipped back to her anger, which was like a haven for her. Her face took on her usual cold expression and she sneered at Pietro. "For what?" she asked coldly, ignoring the look in his eyes. Then she walked away quickly and went to her room.

Wanda leaned against a wall and started breathing hard. _What had she been doing?! Shit, she wasn't thinking straight._ Wanda reprimanded herself sharply. When they were younger, the twins got hurt a lot, especially Pietro. He was always the careless, more reckless one. And then there were the beatings from their Father...Anyway, whenever one got hurt, the other was always in charge of cleaning them up. The only people they trusted back then were each other.

At the rate Pietro hurt himself, what with him running and crashing into things, Wanda had become like a full-time nurse to her brother, not that she ever minded. She had rather liked taking care of people, even used to read some basic medical books that were in their vast library. Perhaps it was some kind of doctoral or maternal instinct. It was the same instinct that had kicked in just now when she saw her brother hurt, and it made her forget for a moment that she needed to hate him. Damn it, damn it, damn it! How could she have let that happen?!

After she felt a little calmer, she went downstairs in search of Lance. She found him watching TV.

"Lance, do you guys have a First Aid kit around here?"

"Um, we might have one upstairs." he replied. "Why?"

Wanda hesitated. She knew that Pietro wouldn't want anyone to know that he was hurt, but he needed help, and she couldn't do anything for him now.

"Pietro's hurt," she said finally. "You might want to go help him. I don't think he can bandage himself up."

Lance got up, concerned. "What happened to him?"

Wanda shrugged and headed into a different room. Lance went up the stairs in search of Pietro.

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Lance walked up the stairs and stopped when he reached the bathroom. When he saw Pietro he let out a low whistle. "Damn," he said. "What the hell happened to you?"

Pietro started and looked up. "Daniels," he replied darkly. The sink was red with blood, as was the floor and Pietro's side, where the blood from his shoulder had come down.

"You better wash yourself up," Lance said, and turned on the shower for him, assuming Pietro couldn't because of his hands. "I'll go look for a first-aid kit. I think there may be one in Mystique's old room." Lance went and scrounged around the house but could only find some old bandages and a little alcohol. Getting a wash cloth he returned to the bathroom to find Pietro out of the shower and cleaned up, more or less. The shoulder wound had looked worse than it was, and the blood was already starting to clot.

"What's that?" Pietro asked, looking at the bottle in Lance's hand apprehensively.

"Alcohol for your cuts," Lance replied calmly.

"No way!" Pietro said, zipping away from Lance. "That stuff stings like hell!"

"Don't be stupid!" Lance snapped, "How else are you going to get it clean?"

"I'll risk it," Pietro said stubbornly.

Lance started to argue and then stopped suddenly. "Fine," he said suddenly, "be that way."

"I'm going to go down and get some tape for the bandages. Try not to bleed yourself to death." With that, Lance went down and grinned when he was sure Pietro couldn't see him. Then he went to get Fred and Todd.

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Two minutes later, Lance came back up, with Freddy in tow and Todd waiting a little behind.

"Hey, Pietro, I couldn't find tape, but Freddy here says he knows how to bandage stuff up pretty well," Lance said.

Pietro shrugged. "Whatever, you guys don't really have to do all this; I can bandage myself up, I think."

Lance shook his head. "Sorry man, your sister's orders. We're supposed to help." Pietro had been looking in the mirror at his shoulder, but then he looked up at Lance in slight astonishment at his last statement.

"Wanda told you to?"

Lance nodded, and then said, "Freddy, now!"

Fred, who had been just behind Pietro, grabbed the boy suddenly.

"Hey! What the hell?!" Pietro started struggling, trying to break free. "LetMeGo, LetMeGo, LetMeGo!!!!"

"Sorry buddy," Fred said, "but we're supposed to get you cleaned up."

Lance headed for the bottle of alcohol and the wash cloth.

"No!" Pietro said, starting to scream and kick. "You'll never take me alive!!!"

"Oh, suck it up!" Lance said. Pietro didn't listen and continued to yell himself hoarse. Lance tutted.

"You know," he said, "I really didn't want to do this, but if you insist...Todd!"

Then Todd came hopping up to the scene...with a video camera in his hand.

"Role 'em Todd," Lance ordered, and Todd focused the camera on a struggling Pietro.

"So, go ahead and make a scene Pietro," Lance said calmly. "It would be fun to show the entire school just how much fuss the 'Great Pietro Maximoff' makes when faced with a little medicine."

Pietro shut up and looked at Lance murderously. 'You wouldn't!" he said.

"Try me," Lance replied, looking him right in the eye.

Pietro glared at him for a minute and then relaxed. "Fine," he said resignedly, "but be quick about it!"

Lance smirked and nodded. "Freddy, don't loosen your hold." Then he advanced on a cowering Pietro like a fox would a rabbit.

"OOOWWWWW!!!!!"

"Pietro, I haven't even started yet."

"I was getting ready."

"Sure you were, now shut up."

10 Minutes later:

"Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Freddy asked a bandaged and incredibly bad-tempered Pietro.

"Like hell it wasn't!" Pietro yelled.

"And I got it all on camera, yo!" Todd said happily.

"Give me that tape!"

"No way! There's still enough on this thing to use for blackmail."

"Gimme that tape!" Pietro repeated, racing towards Toad, who jumped away, and tossed the camera to Lance.

Lance grinned and held it up, "Looking for this Quicksilver?"

Pietro growled and ran to Lance, who tossed it to Freddy. He wasn't quite quick enough, however, and Pietro intercepted the camera in mid-air.

"Ha!" he yelled triumphantly. He opened up the thing to take the tape out and froze. It was empty.

Pietro gaped at the hole. He'd been tricked! He looked up furiously, but suddenly found himself in an empty hallway. He heard snickering and the sound of a door slamming as the guys left. He ran down and out the door just in time to see Lance pull out of the driveway with Todd and Freddy in the car, all of them laughing. Pietro considered following them, but then decided against it due to his throbbing shoulder. He settled with giving them the finger as they left, and then winced, as his finger was bandaged up too, and it hurt.

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AN: Still liking it? Just wait; the next two chapters are the entire reason I posted this story. Review please!

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heartsyhawk, bant, and Red Witch: You guys are lovely for my ego. Cheers!


	5. Deadly Confrontation

DISCLAIMER: I don't own X-Men Evolution. In fact, I don't own much of anything at this point so suing me would be pretty useless anyway.

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Pietro sighed and went back inside, wincing again as he used his injured arm to close the door. The injuries, he knew, would heal within a matter of hours and he would probably be completely fine by tomorrow morning. His body worked quickly that way, even though his healing factor was nowhere near Wolverine's or Sabertooth's.

Pietro went into the den and found his sister on the couch, flipping through an old magazine.

"Hey," he said in greeting.

Wanda looked up and grunted. "How's the arm?" She asked roughly.

"Fine," Pietro replied. "I'll be okay in a few."

Wanda simply nodded and went back to her magazine. Pietro hesitated for a moment, and then went to sit down next to her. Wanda tensed but didn't bother acknowledging his presence again.

The speedster sat nervously, completely unlike himself. Wanda had almost given up trying to read, as the tension between the two was thick enough to cut. Right before she was about to get up and go however, Pietro spoke up quickly, "So,thatwasprettycool;howyoubeatuptheX-Geeks,Imean."

Wanda looked at her brother for a second and then quickly turned away. "They brought it upon themselves," she replied, shrugging.

"Yeah," Pietro agreed, "and Daniel's had that coming for a long time."

"The kid you beat up?"

"Uh huh." Pietro said, not daring to hope that this might turn out to be a real conversation between him and his sister.

"He doesn't seem to like you very much," Wanda replied, wondering all the while why she kept talking.

"The feeling is mutual," Pietro said, grinning slightly. "He and I've been rivals since we were kids."

Wanda nodded absently, telling herself to leave, when Pietro's last words captured her attention.

"Since you were kids?" she repeated, her voice devoid of any emotion.

Pietro looked at her, a little confused. Why was she asking about, oh. Right. Damn, he shouldn't have said those words. When they were kids he and Wanda were together, and they weren't allowed much contact with outsiders. Oops.

"It was after you left," Pietro said hurriedly, trying not to botch it up and make Wanda mad again. "When I was in New York."

Wanda's eyes glinted, "So the Bastard's in New York, is he?" Wanda asked, referring to their Father. "Why didn't you tell me before?!" She shouted suddenly at Pietro. The lights in that room exploded, and one of the shards cut Pietro above the eye before he could dodge.

"Wanda, calm down!" Pietro shouted. "I don't know where Fath-Magneto is! I said I was in New York, not him!"

Wanda stopped and looked at her brother angrily. "Then where was he, huh?!"

"I don't know! He didn't exactly give me his address when he dumped me in an orphanage!" Pietro retorted, his temper getting the better of him for a second.

Wanda snarled and got ready to throw a Hex Bolt at him, when his words suddenly registered to her angered mind. "What?" she asked abruptly.

Pietro swore to himself, running a hand through his hair angrily. He shouldn't have said that; he never wanted to bring it up, especially not to her.

"Nothing," he said. "Forget it."

"I don't think so," Wanda said dangerously. "Tell me, _now_."

Pietro looked uncomfortable, and more than a little nervous. Preparing to run, he just said, "I really don't know where he is Wanda..."

"No, I meant tell me about you."

Pietro looked up at her.

"Why were you in an orphanage?" Wanda inquired more specifically.

"It doesn't really mat-" Pietro stopped as he saw the look in Wanda's eyes. Aside from being murderous, there was another look, one that he recognized all too well. She wasn't going to stop until she got what she wanted; Wanda was equally, if not more, stubborn than her brother, and that was thought to be impossible.

Pietro sighed and plopped back down on the couch. Then he began in a complete monotone, "Fath-_HE_ dumped me in an orphanage in New York about a year after you left. Don't know why; maybe he just got tired of me. I didn't mind though; living with him was, well, not very great. I went to a few foster homes at first, but they were pretty bad. They never lasted, and I was just dumped back into various orphanages. Never heard from _him_. When I was fifteen, Daniel's got me arrested for theft and vandalism. Guess who came to bail me out after a couple of days? Yup, Daddy dearest himself. Suddenly appeared out of the blue after about 5 years. Said he'd get me out if I would join his ranks; go to the Brotherhood. Turns out I wasn't completely useless after all. So, obviously, I agreed. You know how I hate being confined. I figured anything was better than rotting in prison. Guess I was wrong."

Pietro shrugged as he ended his emotionless explanation. It was all true, except that he hadn't mentioned the part about him being a double agent, for obvious reasons. He felt bad about not telling his sister that though, because he had never lied to her. He wasn't lying now either, technically, but still. Besides, he hadn't wanted Wanda to know about his past at all. There was nothing very nice about it.

Wanda didn't say anything after this dialogue. After a few moments of silence, Pietro ventured to look up at his sister to see what she thought of all this. Her face was curiously impassive.

Then, she barked out a harsh laugh. Pietro looked at her in slight surprise, wondering if those years at the asylum really had turned her insane.

"So he abandoned you too huh?" she asked, sneering slightly. "Did you feel the same pain I did, Pietro? The same mental anguish? Did they beat you, Pietro, huh? I hope they did, you know. Did you stay awake at nights, months on end, hoping for rescue? No, I suppose not, because you still had your freedom, didn't you? You weren't controlled with electric rods and a straight jacket. You were free, and that Asshole came back for you later, didn't he?" Wanda shouted.

"Wanda, I know what it must have been like for yo-" Pietro began, not wanting Wanda to start using her powers, but she cut him off.

"Like hell you do, Pietro!" Wanda screamed, slightly hysteric. "You have NO Fucking idea! You had it easy, you know that? You didn't have to feel the pain of being betrayed by your own twin, did you? Because you did the betraying, damn it! You left me to rot in my own personal hell, and went home all smug and happy with Father! I said you were just like him, remember? Well, I take that back, 'cause you're worse! He never pretended to care like you did! He was a bastard from the start, even though I wouldn't see it, but you! You pretended to be my brother, you fuck! You made promises, and I held you to them! I lay crying for you for months, and you never came!" She screamed, her eyes black and swimming with unshed moisture from 6 years. She flung her hands towards Pietro and he flew back hard, his body painfully slamming into the wall. However, he struggled up and darted to the side before she could hex him.

"Damn it Wanda!" he screamed back at her. "Do you think I wanted you to go away!"

She stared at him, and then got even angrier, "Don't lie to me you little-"

"Hell Wanda! He lied to me! He told me that you were going away for a little while because you were sick, and that you were gonna come home all better! And stupid, stupid me, I believed him, all right! What the hell could I have done Wanda?! I was hardly ten years old! Do you think it was easy for me to see you being taken away like that? You think I _liked_ having my other half taken away from me, even for a second? I wanted to rip you away from those people and run away with you! I know that doesn't make up for anything, and none of this is an excuse, but don't you dare think that I wanted you gone! You're my twin, God Damn it, and I love you! And yeah, I did feel pain, Wanda! Does that make you happy? Life was hell with Father after you were gone! And what hurt the most wasn't his fucking beatings or the damn experiments he conducted on me, but you! Yeah, you! I lay awake at night too, crying for you, but I still thanked God that wherever you were, you weren't with Father and he couldn't hurt you any more! I don't blame you for wanting me dead, Wanda, because I probably deserve it, but I can't stand you thinking that I never cared about you, because I did, and I still do, Damnit!" Pietro shouted back, his voice filled with more genuine emotion than he'd shown in years.

Wanda stared at her brother in disbelief, the dams behind her eyes threatening to break. "You-you're lying!"

Pietro looked her in the eye, "I've never lied to you Wanda, you know that, and I'll be damned if I started now."

Wanda just looked at him, knowing what he said was true, and having no idea how to handle it. The pain in her head grew and she unknowingly started gathering energy in her at a rapid rate and clutched her head in agony.

"Wand?" Pietro asked in concern.

**CRASH!!!**

Wanda screamed as the pounding in her head escalated to an unbearable level. There seemed to be some kind of explosion in the room and before she knew it, Wanda had thrown an already battered Pietro across the room, slamming him against the wall as his head cracked the glass of a closed window. And through pain-glazed eyes, she watched in horror as he slid down to the floor in a lifeless heap.

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	6. As it should be

_"Wand?"__ Pietro asked in concern._

**_CRASH!_**

_Wanda screamed as the pounding in her head escalated to an unbearable level. There seemed to be some kind of explosion in the room and before she knew it, Wanda had thrown an already battered Pietro across the room, slamming him against the wall as his head cracked the glass of a closed window. And through pain-glazed eyes, she watched in horror as he slid down to the floor in a lifeless heap._

-

Wanda sank to her knees and groaned, still clutching her head. She willed the pain away and forced herself to focus, like Agatha had taught her. Clearing her head, she looked up and saw her brother slumped on the ground, not moving. Wanda staggered up and ran to Pietro's side.

She gently turned her brother's prone body to her and looked at him. He was bleeding slightly, but his face looked peaceful in sleep, a lock of silver-white hair coming over one of his closed eyes. Wanda checked him over, panic threatening to overtake her. He was obviously beat up. She resisted the urge to shake him and instead checked frantically for a pulse, but her own heart was beating so fast it was impossible to tell anything. She couldn't even tell if he was breathing.

_No, no, no, please, oh God, no!_ Wanda thought as she pulled her brother into her lap, repeating his name over and over again. Panic over-riding common sense and any form of medical training she had over the years, she started shaking him. "Pietro, Pietro wake up! Pietro, please, can't you hear me? Pietro!"

This got no reaction out of him, which only made the Scarlet Witch choke on fear and worry that she hadn't felt in years. Wanda cradled him to her chest and called out to him again, shaking his body harder. "Pietro, Pietro, come on bro, wake up! Please Pie, for me! Pietro!"

_No, oh no. Don't do this to me! Not now, not after all this!_ Wanda thought, desperation threatening to overtake her. Suddenly, she had an idea. Her hex bolts had an undercurrent of electricity in them, she knew that much. Maybe if she shocked him...

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Pietro was knocked out. In his semi-conscious state, all he could think about was that he hurt, a lot. But oddly enough, he felt kind of good, almost safe. He felt warm too, and he thought he was being held. That was odd; he hadn't been held by anyone in years. Yes, he thought, that definitely felt good, now if only they would stop shaking him like that. He wanted to sleep! Then, he thought he heard someone calling out his name. Who? Just as he was thinking about opening his eyes from his current haze and trying to answer back, he felt a shock run through him.

"YEOWWW!" Pietro yelped as his eyes flew open and his body jerked with the jolt.

"Pietro!" Wanda exclaimed. With that, Pietro found himself suffocating as his sister pulled him into her arms and squeezed the living daylights out of him.

Pietro's first instinct was to struggle and get away, but then he realized that he was being hugged, not attacked. _Then_ he realized that Wanda was the one hugging him, which made him figure he must be dreaming or something. Of course, he was then faced with a bigger problem, seeing as how he was turning blue from oxygen deprivation.

"Wanda," he managed to choke out, "can't...breathe!"

"What? Oh, sorry," Wanda said and quickly released her brother; letting him sit up and gasp for air.

"S'okay," Pietro managed to rasp out as he sat up and concentrated on getting much needed air into his lungs. After the blessed oxygen started circulating through his body again, memory came flooding back and Pietro became aware of his surroundings. He was extremely aware of the fact that he was in pain, but even more so that he was sitting on the ground and was in very close proximity to his sister. His angry, powerful, homicidal sister who for some reason didn't seem to be trying to kill him. Pietro looked at her and saw that she seemed slightly distressed.

"You okay?" Pietro asked gently, though prepared to receive a cutting retort.

Wanda looked up at her brother and away again, hesitating. "I, I thought I had killed you for a moment," she said, her head bowed in shame and her voice barely above a whisper.

Pietro, for once, was speechless. He stared in shock at his twin's bent head and then started to grin. "Naa, I'm pretty hard to kill, which is a good thing considering who I'm related to...but I would appreciate it if you didn't try again, at least not immediately," he said, stating the last part quickly.

Wanda snapped her head up to look at Pietro's grinning face. She recovered from her shock at his words rather quickly, and to both of their amazements, gave a slightly trembling smile. It completely disarmed Pietro. It had been years since he had seen her smile, and even after she came back, he had given up hope of seeing one on her face again, let alone one directed at him.

All he could do right then was stare at her. Wanda always did have the most beautiful smile in the world, and for a second, it was like Pietro had his lovely little sister back; the one who would giggle at all his jokes, kick his ass in a fight, and smile and play with him, and make him feel better when he was down.

However, all this happened in about two seconds, and the smile went as quickly as it came, and Wanda looked away again. Pietro frowned, disappointment obvious on his face, but Wanda couldn't see it with her head turned away from his.

"So...you meant all that stuff, from before?" Wanda asked, still not looking at him.

"Uh, well, yeah," Pietro said, a little embarrassed at his earlier outburst. He _never_ got emotional.

"Oh," Wanda replied, and an extremely awkward silence filled the room. The twins were still sitting on the ground next to each other. Wanda tucked her legs against her chest and wrapped her arms around them protectively.

"Actually," Pietro said after a while, "I kind of thought you might be dead or something."

Wanda stared at him.

"I mean, I knew you weren't really. I figured I'd know if anything had happened to you, but Magneto told me to forget about you and said you were gone. I didn't really know what to take from that. He never told me where the place you were at was either. Punished me when I got too inquisitive," Pietro said, shrugging nonchalantly. Then he tilted his head at her with a small smile, "But I'm glad you're not though, dead I mean. Believe it or not, I'm really glad you're here."

"Why?" Wanda spat out vehemently.

"Huh?"

"Why the hell are you glad to see me? I tried to kill you! Repeatedly! And now you tell me what's happened to you, and none of this was your fault, and how the hell can you stand to be near me?" Wanda asked, her voice filled with self disgust.

Pietro stared at his sister in astonishment. "Wanda, I deserved it! You're right; I should have tried harder to keep you from being taken away. I was supposed to protect you, and I didn't. I was a horrible brother, Wand." He looked down in shame.

"It's not your fault, Pie. I'm starting to realize that now. It's just, I tried to keep up hope for so long that you would come for me; for some reason I never really thought that _he_ would. But after a few years...I just started to blame you along with that, that miserable excuse we have for a Father. Thought you'd abandoned me too. I couldn't help it. There was nothing else I could do in that place, and my anger was the only thing that kept me from going completely insane."

"I _never_ wanted to leave you. I just didn't know what to do; I could hardly use my powers at the time. I was just a little kid then; a stupid little kid," Pietro said, shaking his head regretfully. "But I'll be damned if I ever let anyone take you away or hurt you ever again. I won't let it happen! It never should have happened in the first place; you didn't deserve it! Maybe I did, but not you, never you. And this time, I swear I can keep my promise," Pietro told her forcefully, and with complete honesty.

Wanda looked at her brother, an odd burning behind her eyes. "You mean you still care about me?" She asked, suddenly seeming like a small, insecure child.

Pietro smiled at his sister; a warm, genuine smile that he hadn't bestowed upon anyone in years beyond count. "I never stopped caring Wandi," he said, using her extremely annoying child-hood nick name.

Her usually infuriating pet name filled Wanda with nostalgia. Her brother's words and everything that had just happened brought tears to the Scarlet Witch's eyes. I have my brother back>, she thought, hardly daring to believe it, and for the first time since she was locked up, Wanda Maximoff cried. She cried and Pietro's arms went around her, and neither knew anything more perfect in the world. Pietro buried his face into Wanda's hair and breathed in her sweet scent with one blissful thought in mind, I have my sister back…>

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Heartsyhawk: It was pretty emotional, wasn't it? Glad it got the desired reaction.

bant: I'm glad you're enjoying this. I think you've reviewed every chapter so far. Thanks!

evo-lover: Yeah, I'm pretty proud of the blackmail bit myself; seems in character.

SpeedDemonrox: lol, Pietro's pretty much my all-time fav too. Not to use this as a promotional story or anything…oh, who am I kidding? I'm a glutton for reviews. If you love Pietro I'm pretty sure you'll love my other stories. I have quite a few speedy-centric fics already up and finished, as well as ones that concentrate solely on the twins. Feel free to check them out, after you review this chapter of course. :)


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